The most important question you will ever ask yourself

This may be a little weird for some of you. Others will simply nod to themselves and say "of course, it's the most obvious thing in the world." However, stop and think about this for a few moments, and then really ask yourself the question I pose at the end. You have to answer honestly. If you don't, the only person you're cheating is yourself. :)

Your thoughts define your life.

The current state of your life, your body, your relationships and everything else is a net result of our thoughts up until now. If you're thinking about all the things you don't have, aren't, or don't want...that's what your life is now.

So ask yourself this question: What do you want your life to be?

Back in time. No really! Well, sort of...

Confused yet? The title of the article has a reason for being, honest! First, I'm talking about a point in time last week that comes before the wedding. Second, I'm talking about an event that kinda takes me back in time...at least in my mind anyway.

"What the f**k am yammering on about now?" you're wondering at this point right? Well ok fine, I'm talking about the Heaven and Hell concert on March 14th. The what? Yeah, that's exactly what I thought when I heard about it too. Well apparently due to some conflict with Ozzy Osbourne's control freak wife Sharon, the rest of the band Black Sabbath isn't allowed to use that name Black Sabbath unless Ozzy's performing too. Or something, I don't know all the details. Anyway, the concert featured the Sabbath line-up from the Dio years: Tony, Geezer, Vince and of course Dio. I have to admit I wasn't all that interested in seeing Dio, but figured it'd probably be the only time I'd be able to say I'd seen Black Sabbath in concert. I thought it'd be pretty cool to see them plus the openers Down and Megadeth all in one shot!

When my friend and I got to the 'dome we saw a little piece of paper taped to the main doors saying that Down would not be performing, and that Down fans could get a refund. I don't know what was wrong with the singer from Down, but I was pretty disappointed that they weren't playing. I guess if it was serious enough that he couldn't sing there's not much a guy can do about that. The other two bands played longer, which made up for it a bit I suppose.

I was solidly impressed with Megadeth. They performed really well and you'd never know Mustaine's fronting an entirely new lineup, and has been at his game for something like two decades. It'd been a while since I had listened to any Megadeth CDs, so I had actually forgotten how damned FAST some of those riffs are! From a strictly technical point of view they were very impressive, and ended up being far more entertaining than the headliner.

As I pointed out earlier, I'm not a big fan of Dio. After seeing the real thing in person, I'm even less of one. The rest of the band was in fine form and played really well. In truth I can't even really fault Dio for his performance, because it was good too. The this is that he's just BORING on stage. He doesn't really talk much to the audience except to say "Thank you" in a funny way, and introduce the next song, complete with the album it came off of. I'd have been far more interested in hearing a little snippet from Tony or Geezer once or twice during the show.

Like most Sabbath fans I'm far more familiar with the Ozzy material and find Dio's fantasy lyrics rather um...stupid. I was actually waiting for them to finish rather than wishing they'd play another song, and that's not a good thing. The new songs mixed in with the old really didn't scream out originality or make me jump up and pump my fist along to the beat either. I just couldn't get into the swing of it while holding back the chuckles at the goofy lyrics being belted out with such sincerity up there.

Dio aside, the mix was good, the stage show and stage itself were great and I am very happy to have seen two of the most (if not the most) influential hard rock / metal musicians playing live in Butler and Iommi. That's something I'll never regret paying money for. With Megadeth's knock-out opening act and I'm a happy concert-goer. If Down had showed up I wouldn't have had a complaint in the world. :)

Congratulations

This'll be a short one, but it's pretty important I think. Probably the biggest news I'll be posting on here to date, or possibly all year. Over the weekend my sister got married! Yep, you read that right. It'd take me several hours to cover everything that happened over the weekend away, so I'm not even going to try.

The location they chose was great. The weather was quite warm considering how high up in the mountains we were and there were no major problems with the day at all. Of course, a few small glitches popped up, but that's bound to happen with any event. All in all everything went great, a good time was had by all and my sister is now a happily married woman.

Congratulations to my sister and her new husband!
(Click here to see a few pictures)

Ok, so just what IS the point?

Sorry folks, this one's all in Japanese.

じゃ。。。この　ポスト　の　中　には　けっこ　たくさん　まちがう。　もし　見たら　なおして　ね？　今日　ちょっと　書く　の　わだい　を　しらない。　時　に　書く　したい　だけ。　けど、　だれ　が　よんで　います　か？　それ　も　しらない。

にほん　の　いる　時　で　ともだちたち　は　みじかい　えいが　を　作った。　今年　の　一月　で　DVD　は　来た。　”たぶん　ここ　の　ともだち　は　えいが　を　見たい。。。”　と　思うた。　それかか　先週まつ　いろいろ　人　を　しょたい　した。　半分　（はんぶん）　ぐらい　は　へんじ　した、”ごめん。　もう　ほか　の　よてい　ある。”　ほか　の　人　は　”今　まで　しらない。　その　ひ　に　電話　する。”　と　へんじ　した。　その　日　に　一人　だけ　来た！

本当　に　がっかり　でした　よ！　前時　の　ともだち　は　かわった　と　思う。　日本　に　行った　の　前　おたがい　は　よく　会う。　カナダ　ヘ　もどた　の　あと　は　ちがう。　いま、　もし　私　は　だれか　に　しょうたい　しなければ、だれも　会いない。　わずらわしくて　きたいはずれ　だ。

しかし　すぐ　いい　こと　が　来る。　さらい週末　で　おねえさん　は　けっこん　します。　する　場所　は　とっても　きれい。　あそこ　で　たくさん　しゃしん　を　とる　つもり。　あと　で　あなた　に　見せる。　：）